Amala Garg’s wedding at Umaid Bhawan Palace became a tribute to three generations of women. For her chooda ceremony, she wore her mother’s 37-year-old Calcutta-made silk lehenga, preserved without alteration, and for a pre-wedding pooja, her grandmother’s 1946 gold jewellery. She believes true luxury lies in irreplaceable heirlooms that carry family history beyond trends.
The next chapter in our continued series Threads of Tradition is of Amala Garg, an heirloom bride who wore her mother’s 37-year-old bridal lehenga and her grandmother’s 80-year-old wedding jewellery across her wedding festivities. Amala married her best friend, Aditya, on Valentine’s Day 2025 at Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur. While her wedding wardrobe included elaborate contemporary looks, including a red and gold Manish Malhotra bridal lehenga, it was the pieces that had already lived a life before her that held the deepest meaning.
For her chooda ceremony on the morning of her wedding, Amala wore her mother’s original bridal lehenga, untouched since her wedding 37 years ago.
A few days earlier, for a pooja at home, she wore her grandmother’s gold jewellery, which had been part of her wedding in 1946.
For Amala, these were not simply vintage pieces brought out for a wedding. They were a way of honouring the women who came before her, while adding another chapter to their stories.
Here, she tells us about growing up with her mother as her fashion icon, discovering that her mother’s lehenga fit her perfectly, and why she believes true luxury today lies in owning something that cannot be replicated.
Amala chose her mother’s original bridal lehenga for her chooda ceremony, keeping the look intentionally simple so the garment could take centre stage. “My mother’s original wedding lehenga is 37 years old and completely preserved! It was handmade in Calcutta, and it is pure silk with zardozi work. My mom was an army kid and didn’t want anything too heavy for her wedding,” she shares, adding, “While the garment is delicate, it still has her bold and unique style, with the contrast border, scalloping, gota patti, as well as the bright green kairi or paisley motif set against the traditional red. It’s a piece unlike any I’ve seen before.”
Amala also tells us that her mother had paired her bridal lehenga with her own mother’s original wedding jewellery, so even before she was an heirloom bride, her mom had the same idea about honouring her own mother through an heirloom piece!
That connection between mother and daughter has always extended to fashion, Amala shares. Her mother has been her style reference for as long as she can remember, and even played a hands-on role in creating the family’s wedding wardrobe.
“I wanted to honour my mother in a meaningful and personal way during my wedding, so wearing her original bridal lehenga felt like the perfect tribute. Especially because we have always bonded over our shared love of timeless fashion.
My mom has always been my fashion icon. Growing up, I had the absolute privilege of raiding her closet and being complimented on ‘my’ outfits, actually hers. She has this effortless way of blending current fashion trends with timeless elegance, and I’ve always admired that.
She was also the creative force behind all our wedding looks, not just mine, but the entire family’s. Every outfit was curated head-to-toe by her. She poured so much thought and care into each ensemble. Our wedding honestly became our own version of New York Fashion Week, and it was a blast,” shares our bride.
The most remarkable part of Amala’s heirloom look was that the lehenga required no transformation at all. She tells, “Yes, I preserved it in its original form with zero alterations! My favourite part about wearing my mother’s original wedding lehenga was the fact that we didn’t have to change it one bit. When I tried it on for the first time, it fit me like a glove, like it was made for me. My mom and I just stared at each other, too stunned to speak. It felt like destiny!”
Rather than styling it to look contemporary, Amala wanted to allow the garment’s original character to come through.
“I kept it very simple and paired the lehenga with one of my mom’s lighter jewellery sets. All my other wedding outfits, especially my red and gold Manish Malhotra bridal lehenga, were quite elaborate, modern and dramatic, so I especially wanted my chooda outfit to be different. I wanted to pay homage to simpler times, prior eras of bridal fashion trends, as well as the generations of strong women in my family who paved the way for me,” Amala adds.
For Amala, wearing the lehenga also created a new understanding of her mother’s own wedding day. “Oh my gosh, my mom was so emotional when I wore her original lehenga for the first time. In that moment, I could almost feel what it was like to be her at the young age of 24, stepping into marriage and the unknown. Wearing it gave me a whole new appreciation for her strength, grace, and the sacrifices she made as a young woman building a life and family. While we naturally fight like any mother-daughter duo with big personalities, she’s also my best friend and the person I know I can always count on. Wearing her lehenga was much more than a fashion choice. It was a full-circle moment of love, legacy, and everything she’s passed on to me,” shares Amala.
The lehenga was not the only heirloom Amala brought into her wedding celebrations. For a pooja at home before the family travelled to Jodhpur, she wore her grandmother’s gold wedding jewellery, which dates back to 1946. She expresses, “It was incredibly important for me to include as many heirloom pieces in my wedding as possible, because none of it would have been possible without the amazing women in my life. For our pooja at home, which occurred a few days before we flew to Jodhpur, I wore my Dadi’s gold jewellery set, which she wore at her own wedding in 1946, nearly 80 years ago. I was very close to my Dadi and she passed away before my wedding, so it was really important for me to honour her in some way and feel her presence close to me throughout the celebrations.”
For Amala, heirloom dressing represents something increasingly valuable in a world driven by constant newness.
“I think heirloom dressing is absolutely becoming a new expression of luxury because it replaces fleeting trends with a history that cannot be bought. My mom’s lehenga is 37 years old and untouched. My Dadi’s gold set didn’t need a single polish after eight decades,” Amala shares, adding, Those pieces were made to outlive trends, and choosing them is a quiet statement about deeply valuing craftsmanship built to last generations, not seasons. Luxury used to mean the most expensive thing in the room; now I think it means the most irreplaceable one.”
And Amala hopes the lehenga will eventually have another bride wearing it.
“Yes, God willing Adi and I have a daughter of our own one day, and if she chooses to honour her grandmother in a similar way as I did, I hope my mom’s garment lasts another 30 years to make an appearance as a third-generation heirloom!” concludes our bride.
For Amala, that is the beauty of an heirloom. It does not simply preserve the past. It allows every generation to add something of its own, while keeping the women and stories that came before close.